Lupin the Fourth
by LynnGryphon
Summary: L3xHP There is only one Lupin in the world, the master thief extraordinare -- Lupin III! So then, who is this Lupin the Fourth who has announced his intent to steal the infamous Fire Heart ruby and challenged both Lupin III and the ICPO to catch him?
1. 01 Lupin IV ? !

**01 Lupin IV?!  
**

**5/21/2008 -- 686 words  
**

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (Rowlings) or Lupin the Third (Monkey Punch).

AN: First chapter of another story. I only watch the anime that ran on AdultSwim for a time and the OVAs. If you don't know, all episodes are single stories with no true connecting arc between them. The OVAs are all done by different people who have different takes on Lupin and the other characters, especially Daisuke Jigen. Names, dates, and gun specifications are 9 times out of 10 taken from Wiki. I have gotten 25 hits on my poll question and it is a pretty even split between Yes, No, and Maybe. For all you Maybe's out there, I hope this strikes your fancy. For all you Yes' out there, I hope I haven't accidentally sent you to the No's.

* * *

_The Heart of Fire_

_Was born from a pyre;_

_A phoenix from the ashes,_

_The spark burns behind human lashes._

_Stolen from its native lands,_

_Cursed to remain from greedy hands;_

_30 June, striking the witching hour,_

_What was yours will then become ours._

_This challenge I now extend-- _

_Can you break the family trend?_

_Will you meet me as I intend?_

_**-Lupin IV**_

--

Lupin the 3rd stared at the small roll of high quality parchment. The ink was smooth, even and highly ornate, similar to calligraphy. A simple yet elegant gold leaf border framed the message while a uniquely intricate knot acted as the header. On the table next to the scroll was a silver wax seal. Impressed in the seal was an indistinguishable design created of various lines and swirls.

A man wearing a rumpled business suit and fedora frowned at the scroll. Long fingers tapped a burning cigarette over an over full ash tray before returning it to thin lips. His long, curling black goatee twitched as he contemplated the note.

"The fourth? Last time I checked the only Lupin currently alive was the one sittin' in this room. Unless you were holdin' out on us?"

The man wearing a red jacket, blue dress shirt, and primary yellow tie glared at Jigen. "I may be a ladies man but I'm careful. Besides, even if I did, do you really think I wouldn't know?"

Jigen grimaced. "Considerin' the women you prefer, you'd know in a heart beat."

"Also, considering Lupin's age this couldn't be any offspring of his. This person is mature but idealistic with a wistful view of life. A teenager or young adult. Hypothetically, if this person is eighteen then Lupin would have had to sire the child when he was seven years old." The calm statement of logic came from another young man with shoulder length black hair wearing antiquated Japanese clothing. Secured at his side was a sheathed Japanese sword.

"Thank you Goemon. I may be amazing but even I'm subjected to the domineering hand of Mother Nature. So, we're clear that whoever this is, they aren't my kid."

"Yeah, but how 'bout Goemon explaining this 'idealistic wistful view' of his." Jigen blew a stream of smoke into the air, his voice lightly sarcastic.

Goemon scowled at Jigen. " 'Phoenix from the ashes', an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. A creature of light and goodness most often used as a symbol of hope and perseverance. The missive itself is a testament to the youth of our sender. It is just a whimsical little rhyme that, like Lupin's grandfather, is an announcement of his next move. The Heart of Fire is currently on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxfordshire."

"Eh, how'd you know that Goemon?"

"The local section of the newspaper Lupin."

Lupin rubbed his head and grinned sheepishly. Jigen snorted at the all-too-common sight and Goemon had long since mastered the art of ignoring Lupin's gaffs.

"The missive is written on a parchment scroll with what was most probably a quill pen. It was sealed with wax impressed with a stylized fire seal. If you look closely the roman numeral IV is entwined within the flames." Goemon gently traced the outline of the IV in the wax for the other men. They visibly perked up when they recognized what the swordsman had.

"You know, this is becoming a lot more elaborate the more we're stuck looking at that note. Whoever this is, they're either very dedicated or this isn't a hoax. And I personally am hoping for the former."

Jigen and Goemon nodded in understanding. Lupin sat back and crossed his legs. Long tapered fingers gently scratched a days worth of stubble for long minutes before he sighed. "Well boys, looks like we're going to be visiting Oxfordshire on the 30th of June. Hope you don't have anything planned." Lupin clapped his hands and grinned the predatory grin of a kid let loose in a candy store.

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Leave a review. I really do listen! Just ask **Stefni **who pointed out that June only has 30 days, not 31. Whoops.


	2. The Weasley Triplets

**02 The Weasley Triplets**

**5/23/2008 -- 699 words**

Disclaimer: I don't own Lupin the Third (Monkey Punch) or Harry Potter (Rowlings).

AN: Here's Harry! And did you really think the Weasley Twins wouldn't be included in a story about a world class thief with a penchant for pranks? -tsk tsk-

* * *

"Come on scrawny—"

"--Just two more hallways then a left."

Smack!

"Don't call me scrawny. And be quiet, there are bobbies crawling all over the place." Immediately after whispering a pair of police men shone their flashlights down the hallway. A small black shadow rudely shoved two larger shadows back into their hidey hole. All three plastered themselves against the walls and held their breath. Minutes passed by like hours before the police men finally passed them by and turned down the hall. A few more moments then the littler shadow darted out followed by the bigger ones.

Finally reaching the room containing their target the bigger shadows held back while the littler one peeked inside. He barely repressed the desire to start cursing. Their target was on a pedestal underneath a glass case with a glaringly bright spot light shining down on it. Ringing the room were more police than he could count and…he could taste the metallic tang of blood welling in his mouth from biting his tongue suddenly.

Pacing the area in front of the mark was a tall, older Japanese man in a tan trench coat and rumpled suit. A hat that had seen better days was pulled over his eyes and in his hands he twirled a set of handcuffs. They gleamed forebodingly under the spotlight.

Silently the little shadow slipped back to his comrades urgently signing for a temporary retreat. In a side alcove four halls down the little shadow pointed up towards an air vent. Between the two larger bodies and the nimble fingers of the little one it was only a matter of moments for the shadows to enter the air duct. A bit of creativity later and the vent was back in place as if it had never been moved.

With a quiet gasp of relatively fresh air a slim gloved hand peeled off a black ski mask. Mussed black hair and bright green eyes gazed contemplatively at the revealed faces of his accomplices -- rich shoulder length red hair and mischievous blue eyes in an identical pair of freckled faces stared impishly back at him.

"What's up partner?" The right twin asked.

"We've got a problem. Inspector Koichi Zenigata of Interpol and his men are covering the Fire Heart." Harry Potter groaned softly furiously mussing his hair in frustration. Fred and George Weasley exchanged speaking looks.

"Who?"

"Inspector Koichi Zenigata is a highly decorated member of Interpol with a long list of high ranking criminals he's brought to justice. More importantly the man is the head of the Lupin III investigations and has a _lot_ of experience. We're just two over ambitious amateurs and their sucker of a partner. How exactly do we do this?"

Another pair of speaking glances and Harry groaned. As the Weasley Twins unofficial triplet he was becoming disturbingly skilled in interpreting their verbal and silent twin-speak.

"You two are mad. No, you're not mad; you two are absolutely bat shit crazy. How exactly do you two idiots plan on getting away? Bloody hell, how do you intend for _me_ to get away?" Harry snapped.

The left twin slung his arm over the distraught boy's shoulders and pulled him into a one armed hug. "No worry Harry."

"We're professional decoys—"

"—And escape artists. How—"

"—Do you think our Hogwarts records—"

"—Remained so clean?"

The right twin's strong hand clasped onto Harry's free shoulder, the warm weight reassuring. Harry smiled wetly at the twins. "Thank you Fred," Harry stared at the right twin, "And you too George," he leaned into the left twin's hug.

"No problem Harrykins," the twins said in unison.

Harry pulled away from the twins to contemplate them. Idiotic as their plan seemed they had a better chance of pulling it off than anything else. Pride alone wouldn't allow any of them to leave without getting the Fire Heart. Finally, if worse came to worse Gred and Forge could duck into a side area and apparate away. Breath left him explosively when he reached his decision.

"Alright. Alright, we'll do it your way. Just be careful boys."

* * *

I'm working on chapter 3 now. My Lupin is a compilation of the various OVAs mostly with Jigen's information being compiled from all available sources and then formatted to fit my television screen. Koichi Zenigata's information taken from Wiki.


	3. Stalemate

**03 Stalemate  
**

**05/11/09 -- 1766 words  
**

Disclaimer: I don't own Lupin the Third (Monkey Punch) or Harry Potter (Rowlings).

AN: And here is update number 3. Seems appropriate considering the animes involved. Hope you like this chapter, I know I did.

Warnings: Swearing, very minor Slashy bit easy to ignore, OOC (why do I put that when this is a crossover and by default the characters are OOC?)

* * *

The twins were not just professionals at generating distractions, they were masters. They took the term 'decoy' and turned it into an art form of epic, foundation rocking proportion.

-BANG-

Harry grinned ruefully in his hiding spot above the glass enclosure holding his target. If he wasn't mistaken that was the sound of one of the boys' experimental Whiz-Bang Rockets; an upgrade to their fireworks, the WBR was meant solely to provide distractions for quick get aways in sticky situations. _'And if Kenichi Zenigata doesn't count as one of those I don't know what does. Although, I really shouldn't have been surprised all things considered.'_

The messy haired wizard only just found the strength of will to prevent himself from face palming. His twins, dear as they were to him, would undoubtedly kill him before Voldie and his Death Eaters could. But, given a choice between the two potential demises he would readily choose Gred and Forge every time.

-BANG-

'_And that's the signal. Grab that pretty and get out of here.'_

Lifting the grate out of the way, the would-be thief dropped his upper body through the vent and hung upside down over the glass case courtesy of a Feather Weight charm and Quidditch toned thighs. The presence of the ICPO detective more or less shot all their plans to hell so they had decided to fall back to plan B – "Smash, Grab, and Run Like Hell". The knuckle dusters on his right fist made short work of the glass while his left hand snatched the Phoenix Heart before the glass could hit the ground. He was up and retreating through the ducts as the alarm started screaming.

----

"Bloody fuck, bloody fuck, bloody fuck," Harry panted as he sling shot around a sharp right down another thrice bedamned hallway. Zenigata and his miserable little army had trapped the air ducts and an accidental burst of magic was the only thing preventing him from getting grabbed immediately. Now he was running for all his worth while simultaneously reliving his Harry Hunting younger days – the only difference between then and now was that with Dudley he only got beaten up, with Zenigata's troopers that would be the least of his worries.

"Crap, crap, crappity crap! Gred, Forge you boys are dead for getting me into this!" the black haired wizard yelled as he confronted the last thing he needed right now – a dead end. Very appropriate at the moment since he could hear Zenigata's voice directing the stampede of running feet from a couple halls to the left.

He was rudely yanked off his feet and up into the air as he was busy contemplating twincide. Instinctively, Harry reached up and wrapped his hand around the wrist hauling him up into the vents, his longer than average nails digging deep into the soft flesh of the wrist. Any more pressure and he would tear the skin – some preservation tendencies hadn't left since he started attending Hogwarts nine months out of the year and he would readily rip the bastards veins apart if necessary to escape.

"Damn, easy kid! We're the good guys," a gruff voice snapped. A moment later and Harry was unceremoniously dropped into the vent shaft but his grip held.

"Forgive me for not believing you sir," he sneered, doing his best Malfoy impression.

"Ah, come on kiddo! Let Jigen go, we coulda just left you for Pops to arrest after all," another, obscenely jovial, male voice interrupted. The man with the hat, Jigen, shook his hand to dislodge Harry's grip. In return, the smile Harry flashed was more a showing of a large quantity of very white, perfectly aligned teeth.

"Well, looks like our little friend here doesn't plan on letting you go anytime soon, so, what's say we escape and drag him along? Maybe we can get some answers about his Lupin IV character on the way," Jovial announced, the glee doing a good job of covering up the demand tacked onto the end. As if that was his cue, Jigen about faced and started dragging Harry behind him down the vent and over the wall that had blocked Harry in the hall.

----

"Forget killing them, I'm going to beat them both bloody for this," Harry hissed between clenched teeth as he ran pell mell behind the red jacketed form of Lupin III and Daisuke Jigen. The only ones missing were the female Mine and the samurai Goemon XIII. Oh, never mind, only Mine was missing seeing as the samurai just cut a gaping hole in the outer wall of the upper floor of the museum.

'_And there went more of my inheritance than I really want to think about. I hope this place accepts anonymus donations,'_ the wizard mentally whined.

Once more he was yanked through the new 'door' and suddenly found himself in freefall for ten heart stopping seconds before the Pitt Rivers Museum roof met his trainers. We'll ingnore the grey hairs that sprouted as a bullet lodged in the roofing at his feet, spurring him into a mad dash to the opposite end of the Pitt Rivers Museum. He would readily throw his continued survival into the arms of his quirky magic then the gun happy pack of mongrels spewing from the hole in the Oxford Museum.

"I hate you all. Just thought you might like to know that," Harry yelled as he passed Lupin III to run beside Jigen. Let the red coated SOB deal with Zenigata's men, the ledge was mere feet away and then he'd be either free or dead. Thankfully any damages to the Pitt Rivers would be charged to the police agency, or agencies, involved so he could jump with a clear conscience.

----

"Crap! Goemon grab the kid!" Lupin yelped as the amateur thief took a flying leap off the museum's roof. The samurai a mere foot behind the teen, lunged forward and latched onto the trailing left arm. Flashing green eyes hardened as the boy viciously yanked his arm forward, pulling the precariously balanced Goemon off the roof with him.

"Consider yourself lucky I don't believe in murder or I'd just let you drop you dumbass. Who the hell grabs a jumper without anything to anchor themselves to?" the young thief snarled in his ear. Long, lanky arms that suggested future growth wrapped around his shoulders and pulled their bodies tight together. Really, anyone in his situation would have flushed too.

"Now, now sword boy. You can fluster later, right now I need to concentrate and hope to hell we come out of this with out our necks broken. Although, the might very well be preferable to having my spine snapped."

Before he could rebuke the presumptuous brat the encompassing sense of freefall stopped and his stomach lodged itself in his throat. If he was physically capable of it he would have scowled at the boy's soft laughter.

----

Fifteen minutes later and the teen was scowling at the lounging Lupin and Jigen as Goemon held Harry in place by the back of his neck. "Ya know, this is a really shitty way of thanking me for not leaving you to an inevitable and painful stop. It isn't my fault you decided to grab onto me when I jumped without securing yourself first. Or do I really come across as suicidal?" he groused.

"I don't think ya really want me to answer that kiddo. I mean, you hit the same museum at the same time as this Lupin IV character said he would and didn't expect trouble?" Lupin III asked, expertly rolling the Phoenix Heart through his fingers. That only made Harry scowl deeper, flashing his too white teeth once more.

"Oh, I expected trouble all right. I just wasn't expecting Kenichi Zenigata. Figured he'd be too busy chasing _you_ to come 'round here."

Jigen snorted. "Did ya really think we'd just sit back and relax while someone besides Boss waves the Lupin name around? Hell no kid, we came to investigate and Zenigata rightly figured that's exactly what we'd do. So, I can take _you're_ the mysterious Lupin IV, huh?"

Harry just glared and spat at his feet. Goemon squeezed his neck briefly in warning.

Lupin slipped the ruby into an inner pocket before straightening and wandering over to their captive. His jovial smile melted away into a fierce scowl as he crowded into Harry's personal space mere inches away from his face. "Now look kid. Copy cats aren't a new thing and sometimes it's even flattering but not when the copy cat is threatening to drag my families' name through the mud. And you, amateur, were threatening to do just that. But ya see, I'm a nice guy – I don't go after the small fries even though I coulda easily left you behind for Pops to capture while still making off with this little beauty. Good taste by the way. So, how about you cut the attitude and come straight with me?" he asked heatedly. His hackles rose at the slow smirk that crossed the little thief's face.

"Come straight? Alright Mr. Lupin, look behind you." Harry said pleasantly. Goemon's body tensed at the swift mood swing, hand grasping a little firmer. The samurai looked over at Jigen and swore viciously in a fluid language. _'Japanese or Chinese. Probably Japanese considering the Lupin gang's origin.'_

"Goemon?"

Goemon jerked his head towards Jigen's position. It suddenly hit the red jacketed man that the sharpshooter, infamous for his grumblings, had been quiet for quite a while. Lupin straigtened slowly and turned his head to face Jigen.

Identical red head's grinned viciously at him, one restraining Jigen with an arm across his throat and his arms twisted up behind his back while the other pointed Jigen's own gun at him.

"I do believe Mr. Lupin that this is a stalemate. My mates won't let you hurt me and I have it on relatively good authority that you won't let them harm Mr. Gunman." Lupin gritted his teeth at the pleasant voice. _'I've been outsmarted by a bunch of little brats. Damn, if Fujiko hears about this I'll never live it down,'_ he mentally whined.

"Trade off?" he groused.

Harry smiled, showing off a normal amount of even white teeth, and nodded.

"That's the plan mate."

"Hand over Boss-"

"And we'll hand over Jigen."

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Leave a review, I always listen!


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